Extensive research has been devoted to the discovery of compounds having good flame retardancy, substrate substantivity and soil release properties. The combination of these properties in one compound would avoid the need for multicomponent formulations. Many chemicals have been developed with this aim in mind but have been found lacking in at least one of these properties. For example, the compounds of U.S. Pat. No. 4,098,704 have been developed primarily for flame retardant coatings for fabrics which incidentally forms a barrier for deposition of soil. These compounds are composed of polyalkoxylated compounds containing a single aromatic group and have been found to lack substantivity toward nonionic substrates. Further, these chemicals tend to precipitate from formulations containing cationics.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,125,733 also describes flame retardant compounds which contain alkyl bromonated moieties and free carboxyl groups in their structure thus making them highly anionic. The brominated terminal group of the compound causes yellowing of fabric and lowering of color brightness. Further, the strongly anionic character attributed to the reactive free carboxyl groups causes precipitation in cationic environments and molecular instability.
Still other compounds developed for flame retardancy include those disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,278,580 which are hydrophobic, high molecular weight materials having little or no substantivity to fabrics. Further, coating with the chemicals of this patent significantly reduces the flexibility of the fabric. The monocyclic compounds disclosed in this patent lack soil removal properties and are more or less restricted to rigid or flexible polyurethane foams.
It is an object of this invention to provide a compound having good soil release and flame retardant properties together with high substantivity to Keratinous substrates and cellulose, polyester and cotton materials such as fabrics and paper, while additionally providing good water wicking characteristics.
Another object of the invention is to provide an economical and commercially feasible method of producing a flame retardant, soil release substantive product suitable for many applications in washing, rinsing and in coating substrates of various types.
These and other objects will become apparent from the following description and disclosure.